Sleepless Nights
by Treskttn
Summary: Raven and Beast Boy are haunted by memories from their past. Maybe they can help each other finally be at peace? Oneshot.


**A/N: I haven't slept in days and this idea has been gnawing at me. I really just had to get it out. Hope you like it.**

**Read, Review, Enjoy :)**

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Raven sighed. It was nearing two a.m. again and she was lying in bed, eyes wide open. It was nice to be busy in the day, because it really took her mind off things. It was almost like an elastic effect. All day she would be busy working, training, fighting… and all day her thoughts would get farther and farther from her, stretching so far that she would forget they existed.

Until nighttime. When she would lay in bed, in the dark silence, and the elastic of her mind would snap her back to reality and hit her hard.

Thoughts of her father, of seeing the world in stone because of her, would keep her up at night. She remembered it all so vividly. Things as long gone as the monks that taught her to hide her emotions, to things that still hung over her like Slade capturing her and bringing her to her destiny. She was nothing more than a key to a demon who was very much alive in herself.

She couldn't take it. It tortured her. She couldn't sit in her room, alone, quiet, and dark, and let it control her. She wanted nothing more than to laugh and joke with her friends. Than to cry at night in her bed. Than to yell when she was angry, and dance when she was happy. But they took that from her… she was barely a person. She was part demon, part something else whose only job was to keep that demon from getting out.

She shuddered as the memory of Dr. Light hit her. Him shaking, the dead, frightened look in his eyes. She took a deep breath. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…" She chanted. _Clear your mind…_ she told herself.

She got out of bed to grab a book. Books were nice. Books could transport her to another world in an instant. They could distract her from her life that held her a prisoner to her emotions. She looked at her bookshelf, and her eyes grazed over a white, leather bound book. Goosebumps rose on her arms and anger swelled within her. "Azarath, Metrion…" She recited again, trying to calm herself. She grabbed a different book at the top of the shelf and made her way to the common room to sit on the couch and read. She couldn't be in her small, dark room anymore. It was suffocating her. Everything reminded her of, well, herself.

In the silent, sleeping tower, only one other was awake.

The green teen tossed and turned in his bed, groaning and covering his head with a pillow, trying to mask the sounds he heard that forced him awake at night. He could hear his parents screaming, he could hear Mento yelling at him, he could hear Terra scream as the rocks began to fall… He clamped the pillow down farther. He could hear a roar, one that make him sick, because it was vicious. He recognized it as himself, as his own self when he became the beast.

He always tried to combat it all with good memories. Of Raven smiling, or of the time she hugged him… But even then his heart wouldn't let him have it. He would feel the heartbreak she felt when Malchior betrayed her, or he would remember the time he pushed her in the hall, before becoming the beast.

He couldn't take it. He got out of bed quickly, ready to make his way to the common room to play video games. At least when he played, his thoughts melted away. It was such a mindless activity. It's like his head completely cleared and it distracted him from the things, the memories, that tormented him at night.

His heart sunk when he saw Raven sitting on the couch. He froze for a second. He didn't want to disturb her, but he definitely didn't want to go back to his room.

She sensed his presence and turned to acknowledge him. "It's late." She said. She could feel something in him though. She felt something very familiar.

He smiled his usual smile, but she knew it was fake. "Yea," he said, "Just… wanted to play some video games. If that's ok?"

She let out a sigh of relief. She'd never admit it, but she was happy he showed up. She did not want to be alone tonight. Not any night really, but tonight was especially bad. She had read the same line over and over again, but could not focus. Her mind was really intent on plaguing her tonight.

"That's fine."

He relaxed, relieved. He didn't want to go to his room again, and sitting with Raven always calmed him down anyway. "Why don't I make us some tea?" He suggested, going into the kitchen and filling the kettle.

"Tea sounds nice," she answered, staring into her book.

He put the kettle on the stove and walked over to her, sitting on the couch right next to her and turning on the TV. "You sure this won't distract you from your reading?" He asked again.

She almost laughed at the irony. "I'm sure."

So he started up his game and began to make his way through the levels. When the kettle whistled, he got their tea and sat back down, playing his game. She was seated at the end of the couch with her legs crossed, and he was right next to her. He started off sitting up straight, then slouching, then he pulled his legs onto the couch, and eventually, his head was leaned against her shoulder.

She read the same line that she was on when he first came in for the fifty-eight time, then closed the book and put it down. It wasn't happening. She looked up to the TV screen.

_Video games are so stupid… what is this anyway? Did that guy just jump into a pipe and end up in a cave? That doesn't even make sense!_ She thought to herself, watching him play. After a while of playing she started to kind of figure it out.

"Oh, look out for that muffin guy!" She warned, and the character on the screen backed up as it fell from a higher platform, then jumped on it.

"Muffin guy?" Beast Boy laughed, happy that she was taking interest. "He was a mushroom."

Raven bit back a smile, embarrassed. "He looked like a muffin!"

"What'd you think he was? The muffin man?" He teased. "That would be terrifying," he joked.

Her eyebrows knit together and she raised her arm to point at the TV, "What? And it being a stupid mushroom makes it more terrifying?"

"More so than a muffin, yes." He decided. She rested her arm on the back of the couch and he laid his head on her chest, seeing as she took away his other resting area.

The night went on like this. Her watching him play. She began to realize that he was distracting himself with these video games, and they distracted her too. But it wasn't really the video games anymore. They distracted each other.

Four a.m. came around, and they drank all the tea they made. They were a little quieter now. Beast Boy had his head on Raven's lap.

"I hate the underwater levels," Raven complained as Beast Boy's character swam, avoiding fish. "They don't even make sense."

"_You_ don't even make sense," Beast Boy countered, just playing around.

"Stop that," She said, but she was feeling pretty lighthearted.

"_You_ stop that," He grinned, taking in her scent of lavender and vanilla.

Her hands mindlessly stroking his hair. "What time is it?" She asked, feeling drowsy.

Beast Boy yawned. "I don't know. I'm getting kind of sleepy…" He admitted.

"Same," She answered. Then it got silent. Neither of them wanted to go back to their rooms. They wouldn't sleep there, they knew they wouldn't.

"I need to stretch, I haven't moved in hours," She said.

"Yea, sure," he lifted his head so she could stand. When she did he scooted up a little on the couch, to rest his head on one of the cushions, but also taking her seat. He was laid out, stretched completely taking up the whole couch.

Raven grabbed a blanket and a pillow for herself off another couch and turned around to see Beast Boy taking up the whole thing.

"Uh, you took my spot." She pointed out, throwing the blanket over to where she was going to sit, expecting him to move.

He spread the blanket over himself, and then slid himself as far backward against the back of the couch as he could go. He held the blanket open to show all the room in front of him. "There's enough room for the both of us." He explained.

She took a moment to decide if she wanted to join, but when she thought of the alternative of being up the rest of the night, terrorized by her own memories, she handed him the pillow and got in with him.

It was nice. She could feel his chest against her back, and he felt warm… comfortable… safe. She gave a small smile, and he put his arm around her. Neither of them wanted to silence, so they put a movie on the TV on low volume while they drifted off to sleep.

For once, they would sleep well. And they would make it a tradition on especially hard nights.


End file.
